Monday, March 07, 2011

Niall Ferguson's Six "Killer Apps" and the "Free Speech App"?

I noted in yesterday's blog entry that the Spectator's political editor James Forsyth helpfully summarizes an essay by Niall Ferguson that appeared in the inaccessible Sunday Times. I then quoted Forsyth on Ferguson's six "killer apps" of Western Civilization:

1. Competition: a decentralisation of political and economic life, which created the launch pad for both nation states and capitalism.

2. Science: a way of understanding and ultimately changing the natural world, which gave the West (among other things) a major military advantage over the Rest.

3. Property rights: the rule of law as a means of protecting private owners and peacefully resolving disputes between them, which formed the basis for the most stable form of representative government.

4. Medicine: a branch of science that allowed a major improvement in health and life expectancy, beginning in Western societies, but also in their colonies.

5. The consumer society: a mode of material living in which the production and purchase of clothing and other consumer goods play a central economic role, and without which the Industrial Revolution would have been unsustainable.

6. The work ethic: a moral framework and mode of activity derivable from (among other sources) Protestant Christianity, which provides the glue for the dynamic and potentially unstable society created by apps 1 to 5. (Forsyth, "How the West became so dominant," Coffee House: The Spectator Blog, 19th February 2011)

I also linked to "Niall Ferguson on the six 'killer apps' of Western civilisation," a lecture by Ferguson hosted at Intelligence Squared. I noted that one could sign up to join and watch Ferguson give a lecture on these six apps, or not sign up but listen to an audio of the same. I listened to the audio because I didn't want to sign up for the video, so I didn't see the various charts and images that Ferguson used to illustrate his lecture. But the audio was clear enough.

In that lecture, Ferguson began by challenging his audience to listen carefully and judge whether or not he might have missed any "app."

I have now risen to the challenge, having listened carefully to the audio and reflected at leisure. I think that Ferguson missed the free speech "app," which I propose as "killer app # 7."

Actually, I mean something a bit broader than simply free speech. I'm thinking of what I have called a "culture of discussion," concerning which I've written an article, "Toward a Culture of Discussion" ("토론 문화를 위해서"), for The Philosophy & Poetry Journal (애지), which appeared last summer (Volume 42, Summer 2010, 25-38). That article was in Korean, but if you click on the English title of the article, you can read the English version on my blog.

Freedom of speech means the right to express oneself freely without censorship, but for the "app" to become a "killer," it needs to be embedded in a culture of discussion where reason and evidence, rather than positional status, guide listeners in their evaluation of what the speaker says.

Ferguson might argue that "killer app # 2," i.e., "science," entails my suggested "free speech app," but I think that free speech has to be more pervasive in a culture to work effectively and provide that culture with an advantage over other cultures.

Demographics is one that probably wouldn't have occurred to me, but it's clearly important (now that you've pointed it out). A civilization doesn't exist in some abstract realm. People carry it in their minds and their way of life, so ensuring that a civilization continues means that those who carry it must continue to reproduce themselves. That's not happening these day, as demographic projections suggest that native Europeans, for example, aren't reproducing at a replacement rate. If that doesn't change, then one would have to hope for conversion of immigrants to Western values in numbers sufficient to make up for the demographic decline. I wonder if that's happening . . .

Accountability and foresight are linked, I think, in an intimate way, for holding people accountable will motivate them to develop foresight (since they know that they will be held accountable). The biggest problem with developing good foresight lies in being able to anticipate, and thereby avoid, unanticipated consequences (if I might phrase it paradoxically).

Imagination/Creativity/Innovation might fit in with foresight-accountability. I can see reasons for keeping them distinct, though. So, how does one go about developing creativity? Perhaps one has to be taught to see the 'box' in order too find a way to think out of it.

Good environmental locations are certainly helpful. I wish that I lived in a place with better beer . . .

Which reminds me . . . you left out alcohol! Roger Scruton considers it a significant reason for the West's success. Drink encourages sociability and discussion.

-Put law and religion together as one app; both regulate morality.-See the contradiction in consumerism and work ethic; what is the point of a work ethic to produce a surplus for market if no one will/can buy the product? (For instance, the pens in China)-Lots of sexism in Ferguson's vacuous shopping cracks. In fact, Ferguson does not mention women or women's rights.

About Me

I am a professor at Ewha Womans University, where I teach composition, research writing, and cultural issues, including the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history.
My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism.
I also work as one-half of a translating team with my wife, and our most significant translation is Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, which was funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested.
I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries.
Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."